Russia has attacked Kyiv and surrounding areas with hundreds of drones and missiles, including the powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile, marking one of the heaviest bombardments since the beginning of the four-year war.
Russia launched one of the largest air attacks of this war on Kyiv this morning.
More than 50 missiles and 700 drones were launched at the city.
This video shows a cruise missile hitting central Kyiv pic.twitter.com/D40DH3pWYE
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) May 24, 2026
Moscow used the powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile for the third time in Ukraine as part of a massive attack on Kyiv, killing at least four people and injuring over 80 others, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy informed that Russia hit the city of Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region with the missile. He added that aong the places hit included a water supply facility, a market, dozens of residential buildings and several schools.
“They are genuinely deranged,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.
In a Telegram message, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko called it as “a terrible night for Kyiv”.
“Right now, rescuers are putting out fires and clearing debris. Medics are providing assistance to the victims,” he added.
Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry has confirmed the use of the Oreshnik that holds the capability of carrying nuclear or conventional warheads.
Putin wanted to show “strength” but only confirmed his weakness.
Overnight, Russia carried out one of the largest terrorist attacks on Kyiv with around 600 drones, many dozens of ballistic, air-ballistic, and cruise missiles, and a dummy IRBM.
Cherkasy, Kharkiv, Kropyvnytskyi,… pic.twitter.com/jSV83n9FBP
— Andrii Sybiha 🇺🇦 (@andrii_sybiha) May 24, 2026
As per local media reports, the Russian defence ministry informed that it carried out successful attacks on Ukrainian military command facilities, airbases as well as other military enterprises by using Oreshnik, Iskander, Kinzhal and Zircon missiles.
Defending the move, it noted that the attack was carried out in retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on “civilian facilities on Russian territory”.
This marks the third time when Russia has used the Oreshnik missile against Ukraine since the war began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
According to Reuters, Oreshnik has a range of several thousand kilometres. The previous two strikes also hit major cities, but the Ukrainian President said this one had struck Bila Tserkva, which houses 200,000 people and lies nearly 40 miles (64 km) from the outskirts of Kyiv.
Tonight, the Russians struck Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities and communities. The largest number of missiles was directed at the capital – at ordinary residential buildings, at schools; they burned down a food market, one of Kyiv’s oldest markets. The Russian strike effectively… pic.twitter.com/XHtbpTSOFi
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) May 24, 2026
On social media, Zelenskyy described a “heavy attack” targeting Kyiv involving 600 drones and 90 missiles of various kinds, 36 of which were ballistic ones.
“Unfortunately, not all of the ballistic missiles were intercepted – the largest number of hits was in Kyiv. Kyiv was the primary target of this Russian attack… It is important that this does not pass without consequences for Russia,” he wrote.